GUATEMALA’S Fuego volcano is erupting again, only five months after it killed at least 165 people, sparking preparations for the evacuation of the population living in the area.

Volcán de Fuego, which is Spanish for Fire Volcano, has begun a new eruptive phase just months after the previous eruption in June killed at least 165 people - with 260 more declared still missing in August 9.

Pictures show a large column of thick black smoke rising from the mouth of the deadly volcano.

The Volcanic Ash Advisory Center Washington (VAAC), a group which monitors information on atmospheric volcanic ash clouds, issued a report on November 5 at 2.46 UTC, where it was confirmed Fuego is erupting.

Related articles

The heat and the explosion launched in the air rocks the size of baseballs and melt car tires into the ground, before the lava buried homes and killed the local residents.

Fuego, which sits on the notorious Ring of Fire, has erupted more than 60 times since 1524.

The Ring of Fire is a 25,000-mile area prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions which lies in a horseshoe shape in the Pacific Ocean, stretching from New Zealand to Chile and including the Asian and American coasts.

Professor Bill McGuire, Emeritus Professor of Earth Sciences at University College London explained to Express.co.uk why the Ring of Fire is so dangerous

Fuego erupting on June 22 (Image: GETTY)

He said: “The Ring of Fire is a girdle of volcanoes and earthquake zones that circles the Pacific Ocean, and which marks the join between some of the planet's most active tectonic plates.

“Almost all the of the world's most explosive and dangerous volcanoes are located here, along with the some of the longest and most deadly earthquake faults.

Many of the biggest faults in the Ring of Fire are submarine so that their rupture can trigger catastrophic tsunamis, such as those that struck Indonesia and the Indian Ocean in 2004 and Japan in 2011.”